Island of Lateria

After fighting the guards in the naval compound, the party finds Vennerzad’s boat. They get the boat ready and head north up the river towards Highland. On their way, they get passed by the royal Arsidian ship. The party gets away undetected, due to the natural camouflage abilities of Vennerzad’s boat. The party decides to follow the ship for as long as possible.

The royal ship makes a stop at Voorhiven, where it is met by a Hilandian ship. After a few minutes, the royal ship continues north towards Lowencaster followed by the Hilandian ship. The party decides it might be best to stop in Voorhiven to get some information on why the ship stopped there, if the Hilandians were aware of the Mt Caleb incident, and if they were wanted in Highland as well. They dock the boat offshore and head into Voorhiven.

In Voorhiven, the stumble upon a bazaar (they eventually find out it’s for the goddess Erathis). The party wonder through the town trying to gather information on what’s going on in town and eventually turn their attention to the sword fighting tournament. Finn and Bloodbeard sign up for the tournament, and Finn ends up winning (albeit not in a 100% fair manner). The party takes their winning (both Finn’s winnings, and the winnings they won on betting) and replenishes some supplies. Keira stumbles upon a book that is exerting a magical property, and she decides to buy the book. Flipping through the book, the can tell it is a story from the goddess Erathis. After asking around, they find out that there is a church dedicated to Erathis in the residential section of town, so the party heads to the church.

In the church, one of the priestesses tells the party that the book is about the battle of Earthis and Bahamut against Bane. Earthis and Bahamut sealed themselves and Bane for eternity during the War of the Gods. The priestess tells them, if they’re interested, there is a church dedicated to Bahamut in Lowencaster. After much discussion, the party decides to head towards Lowencaster

The party ambushed the Bullywugs at a farm and defeated them soundly. They then moved towards the swamp where the Bullywugs had been coming from. There they met a wizard that had been creating and controlling the Bullywugs. The party upset the wizard, and he sent them to a separate dimension, where they had to find their way back to their dimension. While in this new dimension, the party each had their own alternate flash back on major events in their lives. Needless to say, the party made it back to their dimension and defeated the wizard.

After defeating the wizard, the party made their way back to Finnafinn. They told the mayor of what had happened, and then told him about the fortress in Stingard Fortress.

When leaving the mayor’s they ran into Daar, Mari, Manneo, Pandak, Jett, and Carkahn. The party believed that they had died in the Mt. Caleb attack, but they found out they hadn’t been there during that specific trip. The Arsidian troops attacked the party, but were defeated. General Carsys had been watching the entire battle, and bids them to follow her to her room at the inn.

Carsys told the party that, after the Mt Caleb attack, Mal was found alive and brought in for questioning. She was put in charge of his interrogation. She believed the stories that Mal told, even though he was sentenced to death. She told them she believes in their innocence, and wants to help them. She gives the team a letter and they agree to deliver it to a man in Thornapple.

The party tells JamFalcon what had transpired, and he and Bo’s son go back to the fortress in Stingard.

When the party got to Thornapple, they found out the man that Carsys wanted the letter delivered to was Mal. Mal mentions how, since he has escaped, he had been looking for reasons as to why the Prince wanted to start tensions between Highland and Arside. He was looking for any bit of information he could find in Arside. The party decides here, that they want to go to Highland to look for similar information. They then devise a plan to steal Venner’s boat back from the Arsidian Navy.

The party decides to hire a boat to the capital, but alas they’re poor. They have to agree to help work the ship and find enough goods to ship to the capital. This is handled by talking to local churches who need items shipped from Thornapple to their churches in the capital. Chance also has to sneak another package on board from one of his contacts in Thornapple.

Once in the capital, the party drops off the goods and begin trekking up to the Naval compound (about 4 hours north of the capital). Chance and Finn sneak into the compound, while the others try to distract the guards without drawing too much attention to themselves. They don’t do so good of a job, as the guards release carrier pigeons and begin to pursue the party outside of the compound.

The party decides to meet back up with Jamfalcon Swordsteel at The Queen’s Chamber. He leads them out a secret passage, which drops them out by the river. The party and Jamfalcon decide to go into Oakwood Forest to rest for the night, before going to Fennafinn. Instead of going directly to Fennafinn, the party decides to try to sneak across the border into Oakwood, but are stopped by Arsidian guards patrolling the border. Jamfalcon gets this information from a single guard who came deeper into the woods to make his water. Knowing this, the party made their way towards Fennafinn.

Once in Fennafinn, the party finds a bard who is singing about the monster’s that are attacking the farm lands. Kiera deduces that the creatures are Bullywugs. Once knowing this, they visit Carcin, the mayor. Carcin explains to them about the attacks, and gives them a chance to defend the town. Carcin sends messengers out to the farmlands to have them come in to Fennafinn proper for a town meeting to discuss the Bullywug attacks. The farmers show some resistance to the plan of gathering up a decent amount of food and storing it on one farm, but eventually come around to it.

The party sets up for an ambush on a farm in preparation for the Bullywug attack.

The party decide to follow Boku to his house in Quervas’lain to sleep for the night. Upon getting to his house, the party notices an unruly mob with torches and pitchforks; the crowd is yelling “Kill the Traitor”, “Get the traitor”, “Burn the house”, and other unruly mob things. The party sneaks around the house next to Boku’s house to hide from the mob. Chance sneaks around the front of the house and noticed there were 8 guards keeping the mob away from the house. Chance then decided to sneak around the back of Boku’s house. Inside the house he saw a guard and Boku’s son Boya. Chance tells this to Boku, who tells him that he knows the guard (Hajimari).

Boku and Chance sneak back to the window and try to talk Hajimari into giving them Boya before the mob got the opportunity to kill him. Hajimari tells them that won’t be possible as the guards have been ordered to take Boya to Veripole for safety. Chance and Boku don’t believe that the capitol has Boya’s best interest in mind, and they try to talk Hajimari into betraying his orders. They bring up the prince’s betrayal at Caleb’s point, but Hajimari just becomes weary and backs towards the door. Boku tells Boya to come to the window, but Hajimari warns them if they try anything he’ll notify the guards out front.

Kiera decides to use a Ghost Sound to make it sound like Boku is behind the unruly mob, and the mob turns to follow the sound. Four of the guards follow the crowd to prevent them from looting. Upon realizing what Kiera had done, Chance grabs Boya and pulls him out of the window. Hajimari yells for the other guards out front, and they start a battle.

The party was told to meet a contact between Stingard and Quervas’lain in order to go over the mission in more depth. Finn however had a different idea, as he had buried some illegal contraband before joining the Arsidian army. Finn talks the party into going north of Stingard forest (the opposite direction of Quervas’lain) in order to retrieve his chest. Upon arriving at the location, Finn noticed that the chest was missing. Before having to much time to think, he heard a sharp whistle from up in the trees.

A human male is sitting up in one of the trees and introduces himself as Adokul. He informs Finn that he took his chest, but could disarm the traps Finn set. He would like to wager the chest depending on if the party could best 6 of his friends. Finn accepted his challenge on the condition that Adokul showed him the chest before the battle. Adokul acknowledged Finn’s condition, and went to retrieve the chest. Another sharp whistle came from Adokul and 6 similarly dressed men came out from behind the trees. Before the battle started, Adokul made sure the party understood the battle would not be to the death.

The party won the battle and retrieved Finn’s chest. Adokul whistled once more, and 20 more similarly dressed men come out of the wooded area. Some of the men helped the 6 that battled to their feet and carried them off. Before leaving, Adokul confessed to being the leader of a thief’s guild in Quervas’lain. Upon being handed the chest, Finn noticed that Adokul had attached a compartment to the bottom of the chest. The compartment contained their wanted posters and a map of Quervas’lain with Adokul’s location.

The party made their way to Quervas’lain and met up with Jamfalcon Swordsteel on the way there. He led them the rest of the way to Quervas’lain and The Queen’s Chamber. Bokura mentioned he had a house in town, and was going to stay with his son for the night.

Mal prepares the party for their final task as recruits, a “graduation” of sorts. The party, and a decent amount of other recruits, make their way up to Caleb’s Point for wilderness survival training. The party sets up camp and Mal volunteers to take the first shift. A few hours into their sleep, Mal frantically tries to wake them. The group of recruits is being attacked, and the attackers have set the surrounding wooded area on fire.

Mal leads the party further up the Caleb’s Point so they can escape via a small river running down the mountain. The party takes a detour though when they see a cave, as they feel they’d be safer in the cave than wading down the river. In the cave however, soldiers wearing the Hilandian uniform were laying in wait. The party disposed of the soldiers, and decided they should catch up with Mal.

Once they met up with Mal, he led them to the river. Before they were able to start their escape though, the leader of the Hilandian troops caught them. He and Mal fought back and forth, with Mal gaining the upper hand. The Hilandian leader dropped the sword he had been fighting with and drew out a sickle. Mal proceeded to tell the party to run, and that he’d take care of the leader. However, his demeanor had changed from confident to terrified.

The party waded through the river and eventually made their way to a clearing. In the clearing, they met an elf named Tarki’an who promised to take them to shelter for the night. Tarki’an led them to Stingard forest. The party quickly noticed that he was making “bird calls” and getting responses back from somewhere within the forest. Eventually Tarki’an led them to a fortress in the middle of Stingard.

The party was then introduced to a dwarf who appears to be the leader at this fortress. He traded them shelter for knowledge of the incident at Caleb’s Point, and the party divulged that they think the Prince of Arside is involved with the Hilandian army somehow.

The next day, the dwarf calls the party to a council room where he informs them that his network has provided him with more information about the Caleb’s Point incident. It appears that the Hilandian army attacked the recruits, but no reason has been determined. He also alerts them to the fact that they are wanted for treason. He says that no one in the fortress will turn them in and that they are free to go as they wish; but he also insinuates that they might not find any allies out in Lateria. He also tells them that they can stay in the fortress, but only if they prove they can be trusted. He mentions that the village of Fennafinn is under attack by strange creatures, yet the kingdom hasn’t sent any support. If the party goes to Fennafinn, helps the towns folk, and lets them know they’re safe in Stingard forest, they will be welcome to stay in the fortress.

The party is woken up by Mal to start their training session. Mal escorts them to the sparring ring, which is also being set up for a tournament in swords for later in the evening. Mal introduces the characters to their opponents: Daar, Mari, Manneo, Pandak, Jett, and Carkahn. The party won the sparring round, although didn’t get out of it without being harassed again by the other recruits. Mal congratulates the team and takes them back to the barracks to get cleaned up so they can attend the tournament later today.

At the tournament, the party is informed that the Prince is in the tournament. It appears to Mal that the Prince is in the same bracket against mercenaries, newer recruits, and fairly old soldiers. The other bracket is set up with better soldiers and fighters, but they seem to be trying to intentionally losing the fight. The Prince makes it to the finals, and beats his opponent after throwing sand in his face and switching to his more comfortable weapon (sickle).

Upon coming to the Veripole, the party meets their recruiter Mal. He takes them into a training room, where they party is to work on fighting techniques. They end up fighting and defeating 6 dire rats to Mal’s approval.

The party goes to the Dragon’s Nector, a local tavern in the commerce district of the capitol, after their first day as recruits. They order a few drinks and get to know each other better. Mal joins them half way through their drinking/socializing.

When the leave the tavern, the group is harassed by another set of recruits. Mal informs them that they will be sparring that group of recruits the next day.

A mail carrier knocks at your door. Before you have time to get up to answer, the
carrier impatiently proclaims “Open, in the name of the king!” Upon opening the door,
the elderly man with graying hair hands you a sealed letter. “I’d suggest you read it soon,
it is vastly important,” his grumpy tone is off putting, and you begin to hope he doesn’t
stay to chat. He looks at you, scoffs, and turns to leave. You notice that his bag is full,
and letters with the same seal are spewing out of the top. Looking at the letter more
closely you immediately recognize the royal seal. You sigh before placing your thumb
under the seal. The letter reads as follows:

“Loyal subject,

I hope this finds you in good health. As you know, we’ve had a great 10 years of
peace after the war with Highland. In those 10 years, however, we’ve recruited fewer
soldiers for our army. This worries me as your king, because our forces grow smaller and
smaller. My grandfather once told me ‘a good king keeps the peace, but a great king is
prepared in case he cannot.’ As much as I wish to keep the peace, I must restock our
military forces in case war breaks lose. This is a call to all those healthy enough to fight
to gather at the capitol within a fortnight. You will report to General Zyrephon, who will
then assign you to a regiment.”

It’s signed by King Halit, but you highly doubt he wrote all the letters you saw.
You fold the letter and put it on your table. Deciding it’s best to start now, you head to
your room to pack. With all those letters being sent out, it might take a while to find a
boat to take you to the capitol.